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As de witerary and artistic experiments of de 1950s dat were at first woosewy grouped togeder as concrete poetry extended furder into de ambiguous sphere which Dick Higgins described in 1965 as 'Intermedia',[1] it became apparent dat such creations were furder and furder divorced from de representationaw wanguage wif which poetry had hiderto been associated and dat dey needed to be categorised as a separate phenomenon, uh-hah-hah-hah.

In her survey, Concrete Poetry: A Worwd View (1968), Mary Ewwen Sowt, observed dat certain trends incwuded under de wabew Concrete Poetry were tending towards a “New Visuaw Poetry”. Its chief characteristic is dat it weaves behind de owd poetic function of orawity and is derefore distinct from de ancient tradition of shaped poetry from which Concrete Poetry cwaimed to have derived. Visuaw poetry, on de oder hand, is to be distinguished by its depwoyment of typography.

Sowt incwuded in her proposed new genre de work of Ian Hamiwton Finway, John Furnivaw and Hansjörg Mayer. Her definition was extended by Marvin A Sackner in his introduction to de Ohio State University 2008 cowwection of Visuaw Poetry: "I define concrete poems as dose in which onwy wetters and/or words are utiwized to form a visuaw image, whereas visuaw poems constitute dose in which images are integrated into de text of de poem".[2] He awso separated out artist-generated picture poems and artists' books as an awwied category, citing de work of Kennef Patchen. Awso to be found in de university cowwection is Tom Phiwwips' A Humument, as weww as an assortment of handwritten but non-winguistic texts.

In de wight of dese assertions, a new geneawogy of forerunners to Visuaw Poetry emerges dat incwudes Joan Miró's poem-painting Le corps de ma brune (1925),[3]Piet Mondrian's incorporation of Michew Seuphor's text in Textuew (1928),[4] and prints (druksews) by H.N. Werkman using ewements of typography. The wast awso used de typewriter to create abstract patterns (which he cawwed tiksews), using not just wetters but awso purewy winear ewements.[5] Created during de 1920s, dey anticipated de intermediary 'typestracts' of de Concrete poet Dom Sywvester Houédard during de 1960s[6] dat wouwd eqwawwy qwawify as Visuaw Poetry.

Kwaus Peter Dencker awso stresses de continuity to de new genre in his deoreticaw paper "From Concrete to Visuaw Poetry" (2000), pointing out its "intermediaw and interdiscipwinary" nature. The two are awso interdependent and "widout concrete poetry de current forms of visuaw poetry wouwd be undinkabwe".[7] However, de academic Wiwward Bohn prefers to categorise de whowe gamut of witerary and artistic experiment in dis area since de wate 19f century under de wabew of Visuaw Poetry and has done so in a number of books since 1986. From his reductionist point of view, "Visuaw poetry can be defined as poetry dat is meant to be seen – poetry dat presupposes a viewer as weww as a reader".[8]